What We’ve Been Thinking About

Essays & Musings

Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.

Winsome or Loathsome: Daphne Bridgerton

January 2, 2021

Given the phenomenal interest in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, we thought it would be fun to republish this! originally published on March 2, 2015 Welcome to our new column, Winsome…

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the ask@AAR: Do you have a reading resolution you’d like to share?

January 1, 2021

It’s the first day of 2021 and, really, it’s not a moment too soon. Worst year ever? No. That goes to 1348 when the Black Death wiped out half of…

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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite Bridgerton and why?

December 25, 2020

Many of us sat down today and started streaming Bridgerton on Netflix. The TV show is such a big deal it’s been (positively) reviewed in both the Washington Post and…

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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite holiday film?

December 18, 2020

Every year, in December, there’s a bevy of social media postings and articles about how much people loathe Love, Actually. And, of course, there are a host of articles and…

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the ask@AAR: What’s the greatest sex scene in romance?

December 11, 2020

Every year, for almost 20 years, the Literary Review has awarded a Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Here’s the criteria (we will not discuss that this award doesn’t consider romance…

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Anyone watching Virgin River?

December 9, 2020

While the world is avidly discussing the upcoming Shondaland production of Bridgerton, bazillions of Netflix watchers are already hooked on a series based on a set (21 and counting) of…

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the ask@AAR: Whose story do you long to have told?

December 4, 2020

In anticipation of the upcoming Bridgerton show and because The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After was on sale last week, I finally read the latter. (We reviewed it here.) I was…

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A Guest Post by Debbie Baldwin: The Fairytale Conundrum

November 28, 2020

Happy Holidays, AAR readers! My name is Debbie Baldwin, and I am the author of the Bishop Security romantic suspense series. The first novel, False Front, is currently available in…

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A Gift List and A Shameless Plea… can you use our link when you shop on Black Friday?

November 26, 2020

Black Friday is here and many of you will shop on Amazon. If you do, please consider using the AAR link. As you probably know, AAR gets 4% of certain…

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Romance of the Year? What’s your pick?

November 24, 2020

If AAR readers were picking the Goodreads Readers Choice Award for best romance of 2020, you’d pick The Switch by Beth O’Leary. (It’s currently beating Boyfriend Material by two votes…

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World Reading Habits During Covid

November 22, 2020

Have you been reading more in 2020? Because of coronavirus and the lockdowns, we’re spending more time at home than we’re used to. For many people, it was the perfect…

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the ask@AAR: Could you forgive this hero?

November 20, 2020

It’s always an experience to read Vintage AAR. This article by Paula Detmer Riggs on writing taboo subjects is especially thought-provoking. She wrote about the hero of her book, Her…

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